In a move that should surprise no one, leaders from Russia's parliament said on Friday that they welcome Crimea's proposed March 16
referendum, which would allow Crimean citizens to vote to secede from
Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. Yesterday, President Obama
said the referendum would "violate the Ukrainian constitution and international law."

On Thursday, Crimea's parliament voted unanimously to join the Russian Federation and…
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"We
will respect the historic choice of the people of Crimea," Sergei
Y. Naryshkin, the speaker of the lower house, told the New York Times while Valentina I. Matviyenko, the chairwoman of the parliament's upper house, the Federation Council, described the vote as similar to Scotland's decision to to become
independent from Britain (though London supported that vote; the new
government in Kiev has rejected Crimea's referendum).

"It's
sufficient to recall the referendum in Scotland," Matviyenko
said, according to the Washington Post. "And the Crimean parliament
has chosen the most democratic form: the referendum is the main
criterion for the expression of people's will."

"The
Federation Council will support the Crimean parliament's ruling on
the referendum, and that ruling will be legitimate," she added.

Earlier, members
of the parliament applauded delegates from Crimea, including Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyono, who'd travelled to Moscow to establish plans for joining Russia.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukraine's interim prime minister, responded by saying "no-one in the civilized world" would recognize the vote in Crimea.

Meanwhile,
President Putin released a statement about his hour-long phone
conversation on Thursday with President Obama. In the statement,
released early Friday, Putin said the new government in Kiev had
made "absolutely
illegitimate decisions on the eastern, southeastern and Crimea
regions."

"Russia
cannot ignore calls for help and it acts accordingly, in full
compliance with international law," Putin said, according to
Reuters.